April 2011

April 29, 2011

Sarasota County Schools officials are considering cutting $13.6 million from the budget, which could result in the loss of many jobs. The amount of state and federal education funding cuts will ultimately decide how much money the district must cut from its own budget.

According to an article by Sarasota Patch, the school district is currently facing a $41.2 million loss in funding from local, state, and federal government. That's in addition to the $104 million the district has cut from its budget during the last four years.

"The House and Senate have released their preliminary budgets," Al Weidner, CFO for Sarasota County Schools, said at a recent meeting. "The House has a $20.5 million decrease and the Senate has an $18.5 million decrease for next year."

As it stands, the district's proposed budget would cut $6.8 million by laying off a number of employees. In addition, the budget would cut another $6.8 million in salaries and benefits, which must be approved through a collective bargaining agreement with the Sarasota Classified Teachers Association.

That could be bad news for the local education sector, which so far has been faring well on the heels of the nation's economic downturn, adding jobs on both a monthly and yearly basis as of late.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the North Port-Bradenton-Sarasota area's education and health services area employed 45,000 workers during March, which is up from 44,800 workers during February and a 2.3 percent increase from last year.

April 28, 2011

One company that supports many of the IT jobs Tempe has to offer was recently named among the largest in the state.

The Arizona Republic recently released its list of the largest 100 companies in the state. Technology services company Insight, which supports many jobs in Tempe, was named 88th on the list with 1,279 employees.

The list includes public, private, and nonprofit companies that are ranked based on the number of employees. Information from each company was gathered through questionnaires, telephone calls, e-mails, and industry research.

April 20, 2011

Although unemployment remains high throughout the state, Florida's economy is slowly beginning to recover from the economic downturn. As the number of jobs continues to grow on a monthly and yearly basis, more businesses are being drawn to the area.

During March, Florida's unemployment rate dropped from 11.5 percent to 11.1 percent, after falling from 11.9 percent during February. Despite the decrease, the state's rate is still higher than the national average of 8.8 percent.

Florida employed a total of 7,205,300 people during March, which is up from 7,182,700 workers during February and a .7 percent increase from last year, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The Ft. Lauderdale area had an unemployment rate of 9.7 percent during February. The area employed about 708,800 workers last month, which is up from 706,300 workers during February and a .5 percent increase from last year.

April 14, 2011

Although Colorado grocery store jobs (http://grocery.coloradojobs.com) would greatly benefit from a new beer law, many jobs in Denver (Click here) and state liquor stores and breweries would be negatively affected.

For years, state law allowed grocery and convenience stores to only sell low-strength beer, but that law was recently overturned by Roxy Huber, executive director of the Colorado Department of Revenue.

However, many experts think that allowing grocery and convenience stores to sell full-strength beer would cause great competition for local breweries and liquor stores, and could result in the loss of many jobs.

There are currently 1,650 small independent liquor stores throughout Colorado that produce revenues of about $1.9 billion each year. Those stores employ 2,500 proprietors and 7,500 workers and provide about $190 million in wages.

According to the report, Colorado has more liquor stores per capita than 45 other states. Those stores outperform others in the nation when it comes to small business development, entry-level job creation, and wage growth.

The report found that if grocery and convenience stores are allowed to begin selling full-strength beer, liquor stores will lose about 50 percent of their sales within the first year and 70 percent of their sales within the first three to five years.

Those sales decreases would cause about 700 stores - or 40 percent of the industry - to close within the first three years. Those closures would result in the loss of about 4,830 jobs and about $700 million in annual revenues. After the law has been in effect for five years, about 900 stores will have closed, resulting in the loss of 5,500 jobs.

Overall, about 8,600 direct and indirect jobs would be lost within the first three years of the law, while a total of 10,000 jobs could be lost by the fifth year. That will translate into the loss of $200 million in annual wages by the third year and $240 million in annual wages by the fifth year.

April 12, 2011

A new rehab center will create several physical therapy jobs Arizona (Click here).

Earlier this year, Wellspring Therapy Centers announced its plans to open a new facility in Gilbert, a nearby suburb of Phoenix. The project will create about 140 Gilbert jobs, including 90 new positions at the center itself.

According to an article by The Arizona Republic, the new center will provide transitional rehabilitation services to patients who have been discharged from the hospital but aren't quite well enough to go home yet.

The $8.5 million facility will be located on Mercy Road near Mercy Gilbert Medical Center. It will feature 32 private bedrooms; open visitation areas; therapy area with a pool; common area with an Internet bistro, salon, and massage therapy studio; and a healing garden.

Although the center is designed to coordinate with Mercy Gilbert Medical Center, it technically has no affiliation with the hospital.

"The Wellsprings Therapy Center will complement the services offered at Mercy Gilbert Medical Center as well as offer the community additional resources for their healthcare and wellness needs," Tim Bricker, president and CEO of Mercy Gilbert Medical Center, said. "The Center also aligns with Gilbert's strategy to support growth of the medical industry and create jobs in related fields," he said.

Although the company will mainly provide outpatient services, it expects the average patient stay to last anywhere between 20 and 30 days, so patients have a full chance to recover and be as well as they were before therapy.

"We want patients to be as good as they were before," Dennis Cunningham, co-founder of Menlo DevCo, which is developing the facility, said. "If you could do it before, we want you to be able to do it after."

April 07, 2011

The number of nonprofit fundraising jobs (Click here) has continued to grow, albeit at a slower rate, in recent years.

A recent analysis of data from the Internal Revenue Service by The Chronicle of Philanthropy found that the number of nonprofits throughout America has more than doubled in the last 15 years, reaching 1.3 million in 2010, even though the actual number of nonprofits being created has continued to drop each year.

During 2010, only 59,945 organizations applied for nonprofit status, which is a 30 percent decrease from 2007. That number could decline even more if the IRS takes away the nonprofit status of more than 300,000 organizations that did not file an informational tax form.

Most experts say the lack of applications is either due to the economy or a new procedure the IRS uses to evaluate requests for tax exemptions. That procedure eliminated a step in the application process, which could cause yearly comparisons to be inaccurate.

"Regardless of the cause, the slower growth rate is seen by some nonprofit leaders as a good sign in an era when more and more groups are competing with each other to raise money and work on similar causes," the analysis notes.

Organizations that are applying for nonprofit status are having an easy time getting it. The IRS approved 48,934 applications - about 80 percent - during 2010 and rejected fewer than 1 percent of applications for nonprofit status. About 18 percent of organizations never complete the application process.